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Dining Out: Forget the diet at Sloppy Hoggs Roed Hus

Photograph by: Bruce Edwards
, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Be forewarned: the temptation of My Ridiculous Fat Ass may prove too much to resist.

For me, it was only the fear of same that prevented me from ordering it off the menu at Sloppy Hoggs Roed Hus, the newest barbecue joint in a town about as far removed from the deep south as geographically and climatically possible right now.

That’s all the more reason to step inside this unassuming joint on a dark, sketchy block near NAIT, on a dark, sketchy night in the dead of not-quite-winter that’s nevertheless so cold that anything giving off smoke is welcome because, well, we all know there must be fire nearby.

The overly kitschy sign featuring a cartoon pig on a motorcycle (Get it?! A hog on a hog!) belies the comfy, chic roadhouse interior, all distressed wood tables and pony-hide booths and funky bar stools, one of which is a saddle (but it’s an English saddle as any real Albertan can tell you, which is kind of a fail.)

The menu is fittingly over-the-top for a place that prides itself on barbecue, consisting almost exclusively of meat, beans and bread. A stuffed, breaded, deep fried jalapeno is the closest thing you’ll find to a vegetable here, and no one’s pretending any different.

Getting back to My Ridiculous Fat Ass (MRFA), because I know you all want to, it is one of several cutely and appropriately named sandwiches on the Sloppy Hogg menu — really less of a sandwich and more of a heaping platter of meat poorly contained by bread.

This one has smoked beef brisket, bacon, smoked cheddar, onion rings, a beef burger, mozzarella cheese and barbecue sauce. It’s all good, though, because the burger is organic and there is a sprinkling of lettuce, a slim slice of tomato and some pickles, all of which are, or once were, vegetables.

Served with beans and fries, it comes on a waffle bun, a house-made concoction that is much as it sounds — a big, soft, chewy bun with the distinctive, delicious and slightly sweet flavour of a breakfast waffle. Anything from wood-smoked meat to meat-smoked wood would taste good on one of these things.

The fact that MRFA costs $18 may be your first clue that it, and the other equally overstuffed and outrageous sandwiches — My Voluptuous Bird A Licious (turkey burger, smoked chicken, ham) Roed Hus Road Kill (see Fat Ass, with extra pig and some chicken), and The Sloppy Hogg (all pig, all the time) — are more suited to two appetites than one.

There is a selection of “smaller” sandwiches, each with a half-pound of meat, that go for between $9 and $11, to which you can add fries for another $3.

My ridiculous, fat-assed friends and I decided to order appetizers for some reason (because who would think the entrees would be big enough at a place called Sloppy Hoggs?), opting for the stuffed jalapenos (known as Roed Hus grenades, for $7.95) and the appetizingly named Hogg Slop ($7.50).

The jalapenos were pretty good, but let’s be honest —anything without meat in it at this place is a waste of valuable stomach space.

The Hogg Slop was Sloppy Hoggs’ version of poutine, a dish whose appeal is usually lost on me, but which becomes hard to resist with the addition of pulled pork, bacon, fabulous gravy and the house-made waffle sauce, which adds a hint of mapley sweetness.

Next, we headed for the platters, opting for the Swine Heaven Feast of beef brisket and ribs, with fries, corn bread, beans and coleslaw included of course.

Our server, who wore a T-shirt that said “bacon is meat candy,” explained that some might find the brisket fatty, but assured us that was as it should be because the fat retains the smoke of the maple wood and keeps the meat moist.

The ribs, too, would be both fattier and meatier than we were used to, because the restaurant uses side ribs, not back ribs, she said.

Thus forewarned, the meats delivered as promised. The brisket was deliciously moist and yes, a little fatty, but fat is flavour and, in this case, the flavour is of wonderful, rich, smoke.

The ribs too were some of the best I’ve had — not the least bit fatty in texture but super-moist and meaty, coated in a slightly spicy dry rub that perfectly enhanced the smokiness of the pork. All that was missing were the promised sides of three house-made barbecue sauces: berry, regular and mustard. But the meat was so good on its own, so we hardly noticed them missing.

All the sides were good — the beans just sweet and spicy enough without being overpowering, the coleslaw a nice complement to the rich meat (and another vegetable!), the cornbread also slightly sweet and baked in some kind of pretty cob-shaped pan.

At $55, the platter easily fed three of us with plenty to take home (though we did dull our appetites with appetizers). Our fourth tablemate took a Thanksgiving-worthy swipe at the Voluptuous Bird A Licious, but after a good half-hour’s worth of eating, it looked like he’d barely pecked at it.

Our only beefs were the smokehouse hot temperature of the restaurant on the night we visited and the odd location of the bathroom, just past the dish pit. The hours, too, are a little perplexing — it’s never open past 8 p.m., even on weekends.

Sloppy Hoggs was opened in September by the same couple that owns Absolutely Edibles, just a short jog down 118th Avenue. Already it’s attracting crowds; reservations are apparently a must on weekends, so call ahead.

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